A new conservation covenant on the Red Gum Plains completes permanent protection of a large area of remnant vegetation that contains both a threatened vegetation community and a threatened plant species.

Landholders Craig and Andrea Bush have placed the Trust for Nature covenant on 30ha of vegetation on their Frew's Road property, complementing two adjacent reserves: the Billabong reserve, managed by DSE, and the Billabong West reserve, managed by Trust for Nature.

The covenant is of strategic importance too, as the Billabong area connects to the larger areas of permanently protected vegetation on public and private land along the Perry River and thus the Gippsland Lakes. Together all three properties protect a large wetland that hosts a population of the nationally endangered prostrate shrub dwarf kerrawang Rulingia prostrata which grows only in a small area of the Gippsland Plains.

The covenant also protects ten hectares of the nationally endangered vegetation community Gippsland Red Gum Grassy Woodland, as well as 2 ha of Sedge Wetland, classified as 'endangered' in Victoria and 18ha of Lowland Forest, classified as 'vulnerable' in the State.

A new approach to funding by the Sate Government is allowing the Gippsland Plains CMN to focus its efforts on a species which may be in trouble but is not officially threatened.

The azure kingfisher has been flagged as a 'species in decline' by the Victorian Government. It is found in Forge Creek Water Reserve and this year the CMN will carry out works aimed at improving habitat.

Stock grazing of riparian areas can threaten the species because of the bird's unusual nesting habit. Using their bills, the male and female birds dig a tunnel up to one metre long in stream banks. Enlarged at one end into a small chamber for the four to seven eggs laid, the tunnel is loosely lined with fish bones, scales and the remains of crustaceans.Stock accessng water can collapse the stream banks either destroying the tunnels or making it unsuitable for birds to dig tunnels.

Forge Creek reserve is prime habitat and the Gippsland Plains CMN will now assist landholders to fence off stream frontage.

Three peregrine falcon chicks successfully fledged in November from one of the six nest boxes put up by the Gippsland Plains CMN.

The artificial nests were put up in 2010 to reverse the decline in this raptor's numbers: active nests had gone from 12 to 3 in the last 20 years.

Of the six nests, five were on power poles and one was in a live tree. 

The news has delighted the community and the project's sponsors. Gippsland Plains CMN president Kate Simpson, extended a warm thanks to the local and national sponsors of the project. These were Bairnsdale Power Station, the Australian Geographic Society, HVP Plantation, Bairnsdale Police and Publicans and SP Ausnet.

The chicks have been ringed to assist with research.

Myrtle Rust ( Uredo rangelii) is emerging as one of the biggest threats to plants in the Myrtaceae family.

This serious fungal disease is widespread on the eastern seabord of New South Wales and in South-East Queensland.Locations range from commercial plant nurseries, public gardens, parks and streetscapes to large areas of bushland.

All members of the Myrtaceae plant family are potential hosts of myrtle rust and include:

•  gum trees (Eucalyptus)

•  bottlebrush ( Callistemon, Melaleuca)

•  tea tree ( Leptospermum)

•  lilly pilly ( Syzyigium, Acmena, Waterhousea)

•  paperbark (Melaleuca)

•  myrtle ( Backhousia)

•  guava (Psidium)

•  midyim (Austromyrtus)

•  rose apple (Syzyigium)

•  brushbox ( Lophostemon)

•  New Zealand Christmas Bush (Metrosideros)

Under the right conditions, myrtle rust may slow regeneration of native forests after harvesting or bushfire and could, under extreme circumstances, change forest biodiversity.

Rusts are highly transportable because they can produce large numbers of very small spores.

For further information on myrtle rust visit http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au